After the U.S. Supreme Court denied an emergency stay request from Station Casinos, the Culinary Union 226 is moving forward with its attempt to unionize workers at Red Rock Casino and two other casinos.
Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union, described the Supreme Court’s ruling as a “monumental decision,” but just one among many decisions in favor of Station casino workers.
“I would like to like to take a few minutes to remind everybody that 17 years ago, 5,300 workers were organized,” Pappageorge said Tuesday at a news conference at union headquarters in Las Vegas.
“It started in 2009,” he said. “Over two thirds of Station workers signed an open petition and union cards … to demand a fair contract. In response, Station Casinos went on the attack, a campaign of firings and threats.”
On September 4, Chief Justice John Roberts denied Station’s emergency request for a stay of a federal appeals court decision that ordered Red Rock Casino to comply with a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) mandate.
The NLRB ordered the casino to bargain in good faith with the Culinary Union, following a failed labor vote in 2019, in which the agency found the company committed numerous unfair labor practices that interfered with employees’ ability to freely choose representation.
Roberts gave no explanation for the denial.
Pappageorge was joined at the news conference by Diana Vallas, president of the Culinary Union, and Democratic Representatives Dina Titus, Steven Horsford, and Susie Lee.
“I can’t tell this story as eloquently as our warriors from Stations can,” Titus said. “You hear it from them from the heart and from the front lines. But I can be here to stand with you and congratulate you on this great victory at the Supreme Court.”
Titus wondered what if Stations had done the right thing from the beginning, “instead of fighting against the people who helped to make them great and succeed? We wouldn’t have had all these years and now we’ve got to move forward and try to make up for some of that lost time.”
Titus praised Station Casinos workers for their resilience and persistence, saying that her job in Congress is to try and help their efforts with bills like the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) and the Faster Labor Contracts Act.
The PRO Act is proposed federal labor legislation that amends the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to significantly expand worker organizing and collective bargaining rights.
The Faster Labor Contracts Act is designed to step up initial collective bargaining agreements between newly certified unions and employers under the NLRA. Among its provisions, the bill requires employers and unions to begin negotiations within 10 days of a written request.
By federal court order, Station Casinos must post NLRB notices at Red Rock Casino, Boulder Station, and Palace Station that state:
- We Will Not display campaign material during a representation election containing photographs of you without your consent and without a disclaimer stating that the campaign material is not intended to reflect the views of the employees appearing in it.
- We Will to the extent we have not already done so, remove, or request Station Casinos to remove, images of employees that were posted on Station Casinos’s antiunion website beginning in late November 2019 without the employees’ consent.
The notices at Boulder Station and Palace Station also state there will be no attempt in any manner to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights listed above, while the notices at Red Rock Casino include 14 conditions.
Among those conditions, the company will not threaten an employee with the loss of a job as a result of a strike if they select union representation or discipline them because of their support for and activities on behalf of the union.
The notice at Red Rock Casino will also advise employees that the company will not fail or refuse to recognize and bargain with the union as the exclusive bargaining representative of casino employees in the bargaining unit.
“We’re here in unity to send one clear message,” Horsford said. “The workers with Station Casinos deserve the same dignity and respect as every other worker who has fought and won a good contract in Las Vegas.”
Last month, CDC reported that Station Casinos would comply with any court order, but continued to object to the National Labor Relations Board decision, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed.
The NLRB decision overturned a secret-ballot election by Red Rock Casino team members who rejected joining the Culinary Union.
“The decision prevents any company from granting benefits to its employees if it is aware of union interest in unionizing the company’s employees and nullifies the Red Rock team members’ vote to be union-free, all because Station Casinos treated its team members too well,” a Station Casinos spokesman said in a statement emailed to CDC Gaming.
